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Kurdistan: More Alleged Kurdish Spies
Exposed
12.5.2007
By Frman Abdul-Rahman and Zanko Ahmed in Sulaimaniyah
(ICR No. 221, 11-May-07) |
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Kurdish parties unlikely to punish members accused
of spying for Saddam.
May 12, 2007,
Kurdistan region (Iraq)
Kurds have been shocked by fresh press revelations
about alleged Kurdish collaboration with the former
Ba’ath regime.
The Awene and Hawlati newspapers, two private
weeklies published in Iraqi Kurdistan, have recently
published official documents naming people who
allegedly spied on Kurdish parties during the Saddam
era.
The titles claim they have evidence that around 300
Kurds from various political factions worked as
agents for the Ba’ath regime before it fell in 2003.
An official committee was established earlier this
year to investigate the claims but has so far
yielded no results.
After Saddam was toppled, the two Kurdish newspapers
managed to get hold of much of the mountain of
confidential documentation looted from the offices
of the intelligence service, the Mukhabarat.
Not long after the US-led Coalition defeat of the
Iraqi army, Hawlati published the names of some
alleged Ba’ath collaborators, all members of
Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, PUK, the major political parties
in the region.
After a public outcry, both parties agreed to
address the issue, but were slow to do so.
KDP officials insisted that the party had sanctioned
its members to work for the Ba’ath regime,
presumably as double agents. While the PUK launched
an internal inquiry and suspended some implicated
officials - but most were subsequently reinstated.
In August 2006, Hawlati published more names and
documents of alleged spies in an attempt to spark a
debate about collaboration. The new revelations came
as Saddam and his aides were being tried for the
Anfal operation in which thousands of Kurds were
killed and displaced.
Asos Hardi, editor-in-chief of Awene, said the
Mukhabarat documents the two titles have acquired
reveal the extent of intelligence service operations
across the region.
He defended the publication of the names of alleged
collaborators, saying ordinary people had a right to
know about what had been going on in their country.
The latest revelations have again provoked a strong
reaction from the public.
Avan Mohammad, 24, a teacher, said he couldn’t
believe what he’d read in the newspapers. "I'm
totally disappointed with Kurdish politicians; it
never occurred to me that Kurdish officials would
spy for the Saddam regime," she said, reflecting the
public mood.
She says that those suspected of espionage should be
tried and denounced as traitors if found guilty.
According to the published intelligence service
documents, the alleged collaborators gathered
information on their own parties and leaders for the
Ba’ath regime; and sought to widen the network of
informers.
Judge Rizgar Amin, who was the first judge to try
Saddam Hussein and his aides for their role in the
Dujail massacre, has been appointed to head the
committee looking into the press allegations of
collaboration.
The task of the committee, set up in February 2007,
is to verify the credibility of the published
documents, by inspecting original copies, which the
newspapers will be asked to provide, said Amin.
However, his committee has no authority to take the
matter any further as, he says, “it only
investigates to verify the facts and prove or
disapprove documents".
Hardi insists that the intelligence service
documents his newspaper published were authentic,
but concedes that some of their contents may be
incorrect.
In January 2007, the PUK held a meeting at which it
was agreed to forgive all party members and
officials who had been accused of spying for the
Ba’ath regime.
Mustafa Said Qadir, member of the PUK’s executive
committee, was one of the alleged collaborators who
was pardoned.
Hawlati had published a letter, which he allegedly
sent in 1987 to the Ba’ath party, via Kurdish Ba’ath
agents, asking the regime not to harm his wife and
children who had been arrested.
But Qadir denies that he ever worked for the Ba’ath
party. "We were poisoned by government agents and my
mother died as a result. Why [would] the Ba’ath
regime poison me if I was working for them?" he
said.
Another politician alleged to have worked for Saddam
was Suham Anwar Weli, a Kurdistan Alliance
parliamentary deputy, who like Qadir vehemently
denies the claims. "I have always been loyal to the
Kurds,” he maintained.
Of the alleged collaborators IWPR approached, only
Qadir and the Weli were prepared to comment.
Given that the committee charged with investigating
the press revelations has no teeth and the PUK has
pardoned members implicated in the scandal, the
prospects of anyone being brought to justice over
the affair are growing more and more remote.
Sarmand Rauf, a Sulaimaniyah civil servant, is
convinced that the two ruling Kurdish parties, who
have been critical of the press revelations,
have no intention of punishing any of the
collaborators. “I'm sure they will put an end to
this affair," he said, suspecting that the KDP will
join the PUK in declaring an amnesty for
collaborators.
This will not go down well with many Kurds.
Ahmed Mira, editor-in-chief of Livin, a monthly
independent magazine in Sulaimaniyah, expresses a
widely held view that Kurdish agents should be tried
and punished "to send a message that (collaborating
with oppressive regimes) must not happen again".
Frman Abdul-Rahman is an IWPR contributor in
Sulaimaniyah. Zanko Ahmed contributed to this
report.
iwpr net
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